Slovakia’s Fico says Russia can’t be beaten conventionally and vows no Slovak troops will fight Moscow abroad
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico accuses Western politicians of trying to provoke a NATO–Russia conflict if Ukraine can’t defeat Moscow, argues Russia can’t be beaten by conventional means, and promises not to send Slovak soldiers to fight Russia under what he calls fabricated pretexts, even while acknowledging Russia started the war by invading Ukraine.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is openly challenging how far NATO should go in backing Ukraine, warning that some Western leaders are edging toward a direct clash with Russia that he says can’t be won on the battlefield.
Fico said Western politicians are seeking to provoke a NATO–Russia conflict if Ukraine cannot defeat Russia on the battlefield. He acknowledged that Russia started the war by invading Ukraine, but argued that Russia cannot be defeated conventionally. That view undercuts the idea that more conventional support alone could deliver a clear Ukrainian victory.
He tied his warning to a firm pledge on troop deployments. Fico said he does not want a military conflict between NATO and Russia and will do everything to keep Slovakia out of what he called irresponsible military adventures. Under his government, he said, nobody will send Slovak soldiers outside Slovakia’s territory under some fabricated pretext to fight against Russia or any other country.
On NATO’s collective defense clause, he pointed out that Article 5 of the treaty, even in the event of a genuine aggressive armed attack against one or more NATO states, offers broad possibilities regarding the form of assistance that can be given. In practice, he is stressing that solidarity doesn’t automatically mean combat deployments abroad.
Fico also framed his stance through history. Referring to the 1938 Munich Agreement, he said that democratic powers bound to Czechoslovakia by treaty had deceived and betrayed his country and thrown it to Hitler like a roasted chicken. By invoking Munich, he’s signaling deep skepticism about relying on larger powers and cautioning against what he portrays as repeating past mistakes.
Discussing the human cost of the war, Fico cited Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as saying that Ukrainian partners had confirmed a growing number of Ukrainian soldiers killed and wounded, reaching 27,000 in a single month. Fico said he had no right to question this figure, while adding that deliberately exaggerating the scale of losses could be used to push the Western world to provide more support. The casualty number itself isn’t independently confirmed in the supplied material, but Fico’s use of it shows how battlefield statistics are entering political arguments inside NATO.
His comments underline a split between allies who see defeating Russia militarily in Ukraine as both necessary and achievable, and those who doubt that outcome and prioritize avoiding any step that might lead to direct NATO–Russia war.
The signals to watch now are whether other central or eastern European leaders echo Fico’s skepticism about Russia’s conventional defeat, whether Slovakia’s stance affects its votes on Ukraine aid in EU and NATO forums, and how larger allies respond when a sitting NATO prime minister openly questions the alliance’s core war‑aim assumptions.
Sources
- OSINT